Alice
by FlyingBoppers
Summary: 'I believed him.' Alice has been lied too, but she doesn't know. Alice has never been free, and she's never wanted too. Jeb took Alice away. But as Alice realizes she's done wrong, she wants to revive her own soul, and those of her old friends, her kind.
1. The Life of Alice

**This was is...kinda disturbing? And started on a complete whim.**

**Angel: I don't like this one...

* * *

**

I was beautiful, and it gave me pride.

* * *

I didn't know how old I was, or where I came from.

I came from here, the Company.

And I was beautiful.

* * *

Alice they called me. My purpose in life was to help my Company by being beautiful.

I was dressed in blue, or pink, always those. Pink made me feel free, blue made me feel calm.

The blue always matched my eyes, every time.

The box in my hair matched my dress, every time.

My blond hair tangled to my waist, all the time.

My skin was ivory pale, hardly any exposure to the Sun.

* * *

There were others like me, the Beautiful.

Pale skinned Snow, red-Haired Ariel, and darker skinned Jasmine.

The 4 of us helped our Company by doing our missions.

We'd find our target and talk to them. Thinking we were pitiful orphans, they'd bring us to their home. Then our Company would come get them.

Scoundrels, they told us, traitors and filth. We believed them.

* * *

My life was happy. Every day, I wore an 'Alice in Wonderland' dress, they told me. Every day, I got good meals and plentiful exercise.

Yet everyday, I heard screams. Screams inside the Company.

They never told me why there screams, and I wad pretty sure I'd never find out.

* * *

One day, Ariel disappeared. I asked, but no one would tell me where she went.

I didn't cry for her. I didn't know how.

* * *

Another day, Jasmine disappeared. Again, there was no answer to where she went.

* * *

After a week, Snow was gone too.

* * *

I hadn't been on a mission for a while, and I suspected my time was soon.

I didn't know if I was feeling fear or if I'd ever felt it before. I do know that my stomach clenched and my body buzzed.

* * *

Soon, a man that worked at the Company came for me. I knew him, his name was Jeb.

He said he would help me, and I believed him.

As he cut my hair shoulders and made my bangs spikier, saying it would help, I believed him.

When he gave me an odd red dress, plain with a black waist bow and white underskirts, saying it was necessary, I believed him.

When he gave me striped socks and ugly brown boots, saying it was comfort, I believed him.

When he removed my bow and slid in a white headband, and covered my eyes with some weird green lens, saying I had too, I believed him.

But when he removed from the building, put me in a vehicle, and said this was so I would not die, and did not believe him.

* * *

**There you go.**

**Angel: Flyingboppers1999 does not own Maximum Ride or it's characters, but she owns Alice, Ariel, Snow, and Jasmine.**

**Me: Thank you Angel.**


	2. Mitsubishi Ride

**2 chapters in 1 night? Go me!**

**Angel: Yay...**

Screaming got me nowhere, nothing.

My voice gave out and I whimpered pathetically, while Jeb ignored me in the front seat.

I'd always gotten everything, how dare he deny me!

Finally, he spoke.

"There are some very special people I want you to meet when we arrive at our destination, one of which you'll be able to…very closely relate."

I didn't know what he meant, what I recognized as terror made my brain fuzzy. I didn't like it.

He pulled the vehicle over and climbed into the back with me. He took the odd lenses out of my eyes and removed the headband.

I felt slightly more normal. But not much.

Back in the front seat, Jeb was driving again, whistling an agonizingly annoying tune.

So I used my information obsession to my advantage.

"What kind of car is this?"

Jeb seemed surprised. "It's ah….a Mitsubishi. A black Mitsubishi."

I was satisfied. I didn't know what that meant, but it was information, and information was power.

The Company taught that everyday. Information was everything, I was glad they'd programmed The Beautiful to crave it.

The rest of the ride I pored over a script Jeb had given me, Romeo and Juliet. It was interesting. People fighting for one another out of love…it seemed incomprehensible. The Beautiful never had to fight for each other, but if we did, it would be out of respect for our Company and their work.

I particularly like the character Paris. He did not get what he wanted in life, but he may have gotten it in death, even if it was an ignorant request.

I finished the single work of Shakespeare a few minutes before we arrived. A mirror was passed back to me so I could look 'presentable'.

I looked beautiful. My pale skin was slightly flushed, my hair too short, but my eyes were like blue stars twinkling at me, my lips were pale pink, and my nose small and slim.

The kind of child a mother dreamed of.

"How old am I?" I asked Jeb, the need for information wafting over me.

"You just recently turned 5 years old." He responded.

I nodded. That was an acceptable answer. The first year of life I observed training, some time after I began training, and I'd been performing missions for just over a year.

"Here we are," Jeb stated as we pulled up to an odd house, like an 'E' on it side. "Your new home."

New home? Preposterous. The Company was my home, and always would be.

I curled up into the corner, my odd comfort of small spaces helping me out.

This house may be my death, but I really wished otherwise.

**Guess what Jeb meant with the relate to commet, and with whom with Alice relate? The new chapter will probably be up in like an hour, so,,,find out then!**

**Angel: Do I get to talk?**

**FLying out.**


	3. My almost face

**I've gotten 0 reviews so far, and that makes me sad.**

**Angel: It's not surprising...**

**Me: Why not?**

**Angel: Because if this was written from someone elses point of view, Alice is a Mary-Sue,**

**Me: -gaspeth-**

There were voices inside the house, much rougher than the light voices of the Beautiful I was used to, and much more…playful than anyone I'd ever heard.

When the car parked, I got out, straightened my skirts, and began to walk much more gracefully than the adult human beside me.

When the doorbell rang, the voices stopped. I could almost hear tension and shock and wonder.

No one answered the door which was rude. I twisted the door handle to see that it was not locked, and sauntered inside.

Inside were 4 individuals, at least, that I could see.

One was a girl, maybe 13 or 14, possibly 15, with brown-blonde hair in snarls, glaring at me with harsh brown eyes.

The next was a boy, approximately the same age as the girl, with strawberry-blond hair and blind eyes.

The third was another girl, 11 or 12, with skin darker than Jasmine's was and messy brown hair. She looked genuinely happier than the others, though right now she looked questioning and curious.

Last was a boy, 8 or 9, with fluffy blond hair and blue eyes.

All 4 had wings. It was unnatural. Humans weren't supposed to bear wings, they weren't designed for flight.

Yet they all had wings. The glare-y girl had the wing of an eagle. The tall blind boy, the wings of an albatross. The dark girl, the wings of a falcon. The blond boy, wings I couldn't quite place.

But when Jeb walked in, their eyes turned to wondering, awe, excitement, with hints of betrayal.

"Jeb," The glare-y girl breathed. "But…."

"It's been a while Maximum." Jeb smiled at her. Maximum? Like, the most?

"Oh my gosh, Jeb you're back!" The dark girl squealed. "We've missed you so much! Why did you leave and who did you bring? I don't see any wings on her, so why is she here? You know, she looks a lot like-

"Yes Nudge," Jeb cut her off. "I've been gone a while on business, and I'm very sorry."

Nudge was about to talk again, probably for a very long time, when a boy came into the room.

He was Maximum and Blind-boy's age, probably, but much….darker. He looked almost easier to relate to for me, like a little 3 year old that used to visit me until he suddenly stopped, Ari.

New Guy had black hair, black eyes, and black clothes. He seemed to shut the world out, but I felt like he was still open. It was very peculiar.

"I heard something." New Guy said shortly. His eyes latched onto Jeb, and I could almost see something inside him crumple as his eyes widened.

"Jeb," New Guy whispered. "You left."

"I know Fang," Jeb said strongly. "I know."

'Fang' turned his dark gaze on me. An emotionless mask dominated his face.

"Where's Angel?" Maximum asked Fang.

"I told her to stay in her room while I scoped it out." Fang responded.

"So she'll come out soon?" Little Blond Boy asked hopefully.

"Knowing Angel, yeah." Maximum said.

I was pretty sure they'd forgotten me, and I was offended. No one just forgets someone so beautiful.

"Why's Jeb back?" A voice asked from the hallway leading to this room.

A girl emerged, my age. Her hair was _blond_, her eyes were _blue_….

She looked at me and we both gasped, seeing our own face.

This girl had flaws to her face. Her nose was a little crooked, her eyes a little small, her skin a little puckered and freckled. She wasn't one of the Beautiful…

But she had my almost face.

We looked at each other for a while, and I envied how her curls hung to her elbows. I envied how she wore blue and white, instead of red.

I was shocked, because I had never before felt envy.

But I knew this was being envious. Wanting something someone else had. I'd read about it.

Then I no longer envied this girl with almost my face. She had wings, pure white wings. They were beautiful, but they were unnatural.

The girl with my almost face turned to Jeb. "Who is this?" She sounded on the verge of tears.

"Angel," Jeb pleaded with her. "I know she probably doesn't like you and is being confusing, but you need to listen to me-

Angel took of running back the way she came, followed by the Blind Boy.

Jeb sighed.

"Explanation please?" I asked Jeb impatiently. Information.

"Well… Alice, that was your twin sister Angel, taken for a different experimentation." His face suddenly looked shocked, like something had slipped.

And something certainly had. "I am an _experiment_!" My voice was high with rage.

"Yes…" Jeb said with his head down.

Another horrid thought dominated my head. "What about those people I helped the Company capture?"

"Those who had betrayed us for their families and own interest, a few were escaped experiments or their contacted family." He said, shame clouding his tone.

Normal people who had done nothing wrong in a different way of speaking. Yet a relief was tied to his words. The relief of information. For the first time, I cursed that relief. I cursed it in proper Shakespearean language.

Because I knew it was true. I was an experiment, perhaps just as unnatural as the children with wings who stood before me.

**Alice is not a Mary-Sue! She just hates unnatural things and is very pretty and perfect.**

**Angel: You just described Mary-Sue...**

**Flyingout.**


	4. Unnatural

**More Alice!**

**Angel: YOu don't own Alice in Wonderland.**

**Sampson: Or Maximum Ride.**

**Me: Good job you two.**

I felt an odd stinging behind my eyes. I looked up at Jeb curiously.

"You're about to cry." He whispered.

The stinging went away with the cursed relief and the shock.

I wasn't supposed to cry. I'd never done it before. I'd never known how.

"I don't want to be here," I told Jeb in a demanding tone. "And if you don't take me back, I'm going to scream."

"You can't go back little one." Jeb said softly. The winged kids were watching us. "They'd kill you without the others around."

"Fine, let them," I huffed. Then I remembered. "No one ever told me what happened to them, anyway."

"I took them away." Jeb whispered almost inaudibly.

"Snow, Ariel, and Jasmine?" I questioned. Jeb nodded. "Where are they?"

"With different escaped experiments."

Oh no. No no no. My friends were with other freaks? Other unnatural beings that had no rights?

Did that mean I fell into that category as well?

"Take me to them." I demanded.

"I can't do that." Jeb responded tonelessly.

That's what I snapped. Screaming was an odd release. I screamed until the soprano note broke off with a gurgled noise.

The winged children had their hands over their ears.

Little blond boy walked up to me then. He didn't have his hands out in surrender, and wasn't offering to take me home. But he didn't seem to want to harm me, so I didn't bite.

"I'm Gasman." He said with a smirk.

"I'm Alice." I responded, and then added, "I don't know why you thought names were important when I'm leaving soon anyway."

"You're not leaving Alice." Jeb said from the front door. "I am."

The dark haired girl ran up to hug him, and the others soon followed. They did some kind of hand-stack-wrist-tap ritual and broke apart. Jeb handed me a stack of papers. 'Information' he mouthed, walking out the door.

"No!" I yelled. "Don't leave me here!"

But the black Mitsubishi was already going. I wasn't built for speed, I could never keep up.

I wasn't built for anything but prettiness. No speed or strength about me. This was perfectly okay. I'd never needed that.

But all I wanted now was to run. To run far enough away that I could find my friends.

But that was not logical.

Gasman, as he called himself, approached me again. "I have something to say," He started, making the Information Crave start. "I'm your brother."

I stared at him. I had a brother and a twin sister.

Both were unnatural freaks.

I'm aware that I fall into that category as well. But their unnaturalness compared to mine made a very unbalanced scale start tipping.

He wasn't done yet. "And this is my adopted family." He gestured at the others. "Max," The glare-y girl strikes back. "Fang," Who seemed just as perplexing as before. "and Nudge." The chatterbox. Or at least, the partial chatterbox.

Blind Boy came back down. "And this is Iggy." Gasman introduced.

Iggy was followed closely by my flawed mirror.

"I can hear what you're thinking you know," Angel told me, hate and sadness bubbling at her words. "I hear how much you hate what we are, and how much you wanna leave. I can hear how you think you're perfect and I'm the flawed version. The freak version! The version who'll never have a chance. But you're the unloved one! The one who killed so many people! All for nothing! You didn't even wanna keep your friends safe! You might hate me, but I hate you more!"

Angel turned and stalked off.

I tried to tell myself the words didn't mean anything. But I couldn't.

I grabbed a book from the stack Jeb had given me and ran outside.

'Alice in Wonderland'. Just the title set me off. Reading the back cover was worse.

I laid down on the rocky mountains and cried for the first time in my life.

I cried for myself. I cried for Snow, Ariel, and Jasmine. I cried for my twin. I cried for my brother. I cried for Jeb.

Maybe not for them…more like about them. I cried on and on. It was odd, satisfying relief.

Even when my brother came out to comfort me, the tears still fell.

Because I was Alice. And I was falling into the rabbit hole.

**Its beautiful! *sob***

**Angel: You have homework.**

**Me: Fun killer.**

**Angel: Seriously, you have math, science, and language arts.**

**Me: True...y'know, for a 5 year old, you really like to kill my buzzez.**

**Flying out.**


	5. Short Filler Twin Talk

I was too smart for my own good. Yes, I was an 'enhanced' 5 year old, but I understood the Flock too well in just a few days.

Maybe I couldn't read minds, but I'd always been good at picking up emotion.

The 3 who intrigued me most were Fang, Iggy, and Angel.

Fang was hiding something, and he felt more than he let on. Iggy was always sad no matter what, and it made me uneasy, especially when that feeling was around when he made jokes.

Angel was a little kid, like me. We were both tough. But our opinions were too different for anyone to think we were twins.

It was almost embarrassing in a way.

The 'Flock', as they called themselves, made me sleep on the couch. Max, the self-proclaimed leader, checked on me _5 times a night_.

Maybe they thought I would go legally insane and kill them. Or something.

Sleeping on the couch still was not a happy experience.

Not that I slept much.

Instead, I read. Every night I plucked another book or document from the pile and read.

My favorite was Alice in Wonderland, by far.

One night I was in depth with my favorite, when I heard someone walking in. Definitely not Max.

"Hi," Angel whispered.

I looked up to see my twin at the foot of the couch, examining my book.

"I'm sorry." She said quietly. "You know, for making you cry."

"I wish I could be sorry about what you heard from me." I responded nonchalantly.

"You know, I heard some things from Jeb, some things about you." Angel told me, still whispering.

"Like what?" The craving swept me like a plague. It became a need greater than that for oxygen.

"Like only one of your friends escaped with him. The Dark haired one, with pale skin."

Snow. Snow had made it out, but not Jasmine or Ariel.

Angel sensed my rising question. "The others both died. The Company killed them."

The uncomfortable eye-prick feeling returned. Half my species just died out.

It was an extremely depressing thought.

Why? Were we not good enough? Was there something wrong? They'd never told us of something wrong before. It was always 'Perfect', or 'Outstanding', or 'Here's your reward'.

Never anything wrong.

"They decided you might get too curious." Angel whispered. "You might start to ask questions or plan to take them out."

"I'm 5." I pointed out.

"But you're more mature than most 5 year olds."

"Yeah."

I returned to my book, to the world of magic and wonder, the craving ceased.

Angel fell asleep at the foot of the couch, leaving me half-concentrating on the book, half wondering if I could ever pose a threat to the Company.


	6. The Beautifuls

**I love this one. Because it doens't really advance the plot...wait, yes it does. The plot couldn't exist without this chapter.**

**Angel: Well maybe...but probably not.**

**Me: Here it is!**

I stalked away from the Group behind me, wishing so desperately I was home again, with Alice, and Jasmine, and Ariel.

But the man, Jeb, had said I must stay away from there. He told me I had a brother, though not in the group he'd left me with, the obnoxious, rude, loud, disgusting group he'd left me with.

Made up of 'people' who called themselves Star, Kate, Maya, Holden, and Ratchet, the group was my least favorite mass of 'people' in existence. And they weren't even human!

Neither was I though, I guess.

I nibbled mindlessly on an apple, finding it ironic after reading one of the many books Jeb had left for me. Snow, finding her death in an apple. Illogical fairytales indeed.

I patted my hair, which had grown back out slightly in the few weeks I'd been here, but was still not long enough. However, I was rid of those horrid green eye-lenses , letting my eyes be their natural brown.

But I was unfortunately ripped from my usual red, blue, or black gauzy dresses. Instead, I wore things called 'jeans' and 'T-shirts'.

Now, I just needed someone to tell I could go back home safely, and my sanity would be restored.

* * *

Jasmine looked at me in what I could only define as terror. I looked back, that same expression.

Then we both started falling. We both tried to control the new appendages on or backs, with responded dully, with just enough force to let us glide and not splat 100 feet below.

I hated having wings. I was little! I guessed I was about 7, maybe 8, by what I heard around the lab, and Jaz was just a few years younger.

We'd changed in the past few weeks. Wings that weren't attached quite right. Being starved for information, and then food. Jasmine and I had gotten really close. I called her Jaz now, and she called me Air, nicknames we would have scoffed at a month earlier.

But now we needed the comfort.

The ones we used to respect whipped us when we reached the ground, making our once-flawless arms bleed and bruise.

We weren't so beautiful anymore. Sure, we still had the big eyes and beautiful hair and acne-free skin, but our eyes were growing duller, our hair tangled with blood, and our skin scarred.

Jasmine clung to me as they beat us, and all I could do was cling back to her and take the pain.

* * *

I woke up to smell bacon, something the birds had been eating a lot of.

I waked to the table unceremoniously, and flounced into a chair.

Unlike the others, I grabbed a respectable amount of food, and ate like a human being. You would've thought the others in the house were mixed with pigs, not refined avians.

The leader in this household was 13. I think me being skeptical of their sanity is in full order.

I could also, in full awareness, doubt their living conditions. When I cleaned up the living room where they made me sleep, the blind one, Iggy, and the short blond one, Gasman, freaked out. All because I threw away a stash of wires. Dumbos.

How I didn't like this place. I missed Snow, Ariel, Jasmine…..

Ariel and Jasmine, gone. Jasmine was a little younger than I was; Ariel was older by a bit. Snow, missing, probably as miserable as me, who was the oldest, maybe a year older than Ariel.

But I would be strong still. I would be Alice. I would be my own. I wouldn't be 'Angel's Twin', or 'The New One', or 'The Misfit'.

Never again would I be 'The Blond Beautiful'.

But I almost cried again when I realized no one would ever again call me 'A Beautiful', my favorite name that Id ever heard. Even better than 'Alice'.

And that was, in my mind, one of the biggest tragedies.


	7. The Damned's Lullaby

**Hey-O!**

**Angel: Really?**

**Me: Really what?**

**Angel: Hey-O?**

**Me: Yes.**

**Angel: This chapter scares me.**

**Me: That doesn't surprise me.**

'_I can hear what you're thinking you know. I hear how much you hate what we are, and how much you wanna leave. I can hear how you think you're perfect and I'm the flawed version. The freak version! The version who'll never have a chance. But you're the unloved one! The one who killed so many people! All for nothing! You didn't even wanna keep your friends safe! You might hate me, but I hate you more!'_

_Angel screamed at me. I saw Snow, eating an apple, slowly lying down, her eyes slowly going duller. _

_I saw Jasmine clinging to Ariel, each displaying long feathered wings, Ariel's of an overly-large cardinal and Jasmines of some kind of giant raven, while they plummeted hundreds of feet. _

_I tried to scream for them, to try to alert others, but what I was thinking didn't make my body respond. The entire place I was in had mirror walls, so I could watch myself. _

_I looked more beautiful than ever. My hair had been neatly combed and my skin didn't even have a single scrape._

_But my eyes…._

_My eyes had a sparkle I'd never seen. A demented, evil twinkle that could've killed an onlooker. _

_And my lips were curled into a sly grin, only emphasizing the look in my eyes. _

_I stood there like that as my friends died, Snow quietly, Ariel and Jasmine screaming._

_In my head I was panicking, trying to do anything to stop these horrific deaths._

_But my body did nothing._

_While I mourned quietly in my head, my body laughed, and Angel looked at me frightened and hateful._

_Her words floated back to me. Unloved, freak, flawed, hate, killed._

_And with those words in my head, my body whipped out wings and flew off, Angel not even bothering to follow._

I sat up. Why? Why was it those words and those deaths in my dream?

These things haunted me, all of the key components in my dream. The deaths, Angel's words, my body's odd reactions. It should mean something.

"Angel told me." Said a voice, a male voice, by the foot of the couch. "It woke her up. It's 2 in the morning you know."

I looked up to see Fang standing there.

"Hello Fang," I said as pleasantly as I could muster. "You don't need to worry about anything. I'm fine." I laid back down and waited for sleep.

"No you're not." Fang said gently. "That was some nightmare, and you shouldn't be okay."

No, I shouldn't. I wasn't, really. But I didn't want to cry again. To cry anymore. Never again.

"I have nightmares too, you know." Fang was talking more than he had the whole week I'd known him. "I lay awake for hours, waiting until morning, wishing I had someone to tell that wouldn't look down on me. Sometimes I wish I had a mom or a dad, to put up with the nightmares the very reason I don't have those parents gave me. That place still terrifies me, even though it never did for you. You don't need to know any of this, Alice, but I want you to trust me. Because even with wings on my back, you can trust me."

He sat by the edge of the couch on the floor, right next to my stomach. Fang looked over at me, and I saw his eyes, lighter than I'd ever seen them, even in the dark. He smiled a bit, then closed his eyes lightly.

I did the same, sleep taking me far before I wanted it to.

I held onto Jasmine, trying to make myself smaller in this tiny space. Metal bars surrounded us, and we could see misshapen creatures next to us.

Across the room we heard something. Singing. An older girl, and a young boy, perhaps my age.

The words they sang were eerie and sad. I sat and listened to the words, holding Jaz ever tighter as the phrases bored into my mind.

There dear, don't you cry

Sing with me, our lullaby,

Rest your head now and let your fears go

For if you'll rise even I don't know

Each days a gift but it brings more pain,

I don't know if we'll see sunshine again

But don't cry, dear of mine

The pain will pass, soon with time

Forget all the monsters outside of your door

For they cannot worry you anymore

I'll be with you as the dawns light starts to fade

As they're unaware of the price that was paid

Don't mind, my tears now

Don't ask, why or how

Just know that you'll be in your dreams

Where there's no pain, no monsters or screams

Forget all the pain that you've been through

For now, right now there's nothing they will do

I'll hold onto you until you go to sleep

And this memory of you I forever will keep

For if you go you will soon be forgot

That's the sad truth of this nightmarish plot

But have peace now, as you die

And hum with me, the damned's lullaby…

**The song at the end, the beautiful, marvelous, amazing song at the end, is not mine. Actually, I tampered with it a bit.**

**Angel: It's from the fic ****Damned Lullaby**** by Bookworm0492.**

**Me: The whole version is in her story, even though this is most of it. **

**BTW, those characters singing at the end? Boy and girl? Suggest names please! Y'know, the names they would have, probably children's book names considering the other ones. If you want to suggest looks to that'd be fine. **

**Flying out.**


End file.
